Christmas 2012

Every Christmas Eve our family has always opened all gifts, done a big dinner....German tradition. But since we are all married to Americans, we have slimmed down to dinner and one gift!

 The kids were more than ready to dive into something...anything!

 After {im}patiently waiting, Maddie got the most requested thing on her list (she told every Santa and um, everyone that asked)...a Dreamlight! She was beyond excited thanks Oma Santa!!

After dinner, gifts and pics, Jacob entertained us with the 97th rendition of Gangham Style....with Maddie promptly joining in, of course!

Christmas Morning!!!!!

 

The second most requested thing on Maddie's list...cars! No idea where this came from but a pretty simple request for sure! We were happy to oblige her....I know the days of  simple, affordable gifts will soon be gone.

 And file this under "gifts I regret buying"...she's amplified. Heaven help us!

 For the past couple years, our friends, The Bernals have joined us Christmas morning....they moved here from Denver and have no other family, so we have become their surrogate "people"!
And ....quite possibly the best gift ever...PAT BENATAR tickets from Garret! I'm so excited I can barely stand it!!!! Even more exciting...he's gonna take me (not exactly his bag....totally taking one for the team on this one!)

 And finally, a stop at Mo's for yet more gifts before falling over from fatigue!

Maddie got hold of some makeup and, um, applied a bit of eyeshadow. Bringing back the glam rock look, I suppose ;)

I realize, looking at these pics how musical our family is. We have always danced, sung, played various musical instruments so it's kind of neat to see our children following suit. It was a wonderful for me personally growing up and I know Garret was a bit of a performer as well....guess our little lady gets it honest!

When I put Maddie to bed, so beyond bedtime I half expected her to skip our nightly prayer/chit-chat routine I asked her if she had a nice Christmas. She grabbed my face in her hands and said "it was the bestest Christmas of all, thank you Mommy" and gave me a kiss. All day she said thank you to everyone and was genuinely so excited about every gift. It made me so proud to see her so grateful. It's a quality you don't much see in kids these days. Love her so very much! It was the last time our little family of three will share a holiday before it grows to four...as excited as I am, I found myself standing in her doorway for a minute getting a little emotional. I hope I am able to see equal joy in two little faces.....